Veep's Reid Scott Moonlights as the Voice of Netflix's Turbo FAST

Reid Scott may be best known for his Veep character, sleazy ex-campaign manager Dan Egan, but kids are now recognizing him — or, at least, his voice — for a different reason. Scott returns to Netflix on Friday, June 27 as the streaming service posts a new batch of Turbo FASTepisodes.

Scott plays the cartoon's title character, an unlikely racing champ who happens to be a snail. Based on the 2013 film Turbo, Turbo FAST is the first original children's series on Netflix, and the first of several heading to the service under its programming deal with DreamWorks Animation. Unlike its adult live-action series, Netflix is staggering episodes of Turbo FAST, which has a 26-episode order. This is the third batch of five-to-six episodes that Netflix continues to premiere around holidays.

The recently married Scott, whose credits include The Big C, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and My Boys, spoke with TV Guide Magazine about taking over the role of Turbo, why voice-over work is the best gig in Hollywood, and how Dan was humbled this season on Veep.

TV Guide Magazine: How did you end up playing Turbo on Turbo FAST?Reid Scott: I love it. It might actually me my favorite gig. Chris Prynoski, one of the executive producers on it, he and I go way back. We shot a pilot together called Flash Frame for AMC back in 2000 or 2001, before AMC was the giant megalith it is now. We got along but lost contact. Later on I was trying to break into voiceover, but it was going nowhere. When I auditioned for Disney XD's Motorcity, Chris was there. We hadn't seen each other in 10 years, but we hit it off and I got the job. It was my first voiceover gig, and it was so much fun that when Motorcity got canceled, Chris said, "We just got tapped to do Turbo; I think you would be great for the voice and I'm going to fight for you." I'm so glad he did.

TV Guide Magazine: Voiceover work seems like the best gig. You get to show up in sweatpants.Scott: The community of voice actors, unlike the on-camera side of Hollywood which can be very cutthroat, is so encouraging and inclusive. It's like working on a basketball team where everyone's happy you're hitting your shots.

TV Guide Magazine: Ryan Reynolds voiced Turbo in the DreamWorks Animation film. What's it like to take over a pre-existing vocal role? Did you have to go back and emulate what he did in the movie?Scott: At first there was a sense of trying to capture his inflection, his intonation and the character's attitude. We worked hard at keeping that cohesion between the feature Turbo and the TV Turbo. And then slowly it took on a life of its own. The Turbo we have now is inspired by that, but he's very much his own guy. I think all the characters have slowly morphed into different versions.

TV Guide Magazine: Now you have a trick at kids' parties — just start speaking in Turbo's voice.Scott: One of our location scouts on Veep told me how much his kids loved Turbo. He didn't know it was me. He made me record a greeting for his kids, and they were blown away that their dad knew Turbo.

TV Guide Magazine: You're currently working for HBO, Netflix and DreamWorks. That's a pretty strong group of employers.Scott: I'm in a real good spot. I know I'm a lucky guy.

TV Guide Magazine: That was quite an eventful season of Veep. Turns out Dan wasn't that good of a campaign manager.Scott: No, who would have thought, he's actually an idiot!

TV Guide Magazine: He was the one guy who seemed to have things a little more under control, but turns out he's a mess.Scott: I think he bit off a little more than he could chew. His Machiavellian, stone-stepping tactics are blowing up in his face.

TV Guide Magazine: I imagine it must be fun to play that kind of character: Full of himself and realizing he's an empty suit.Scott: I'm just playing myself, man.